Tax avoiders hit by mansion levy

ROCK stars, Arab sheikhs and Nigerian oil billionaires are among more than
5,000 owners of “mansions” who will this week be landed with an annual
property tax of up to £140,000.

Letters from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will warn those who own homes
through British and offshore companies that they could be liable for the new
tax.

The levy, set in four bands ranging from £15,000 to £140,000, will be charged
on homes worth more than £2m according to their valuations in April last
year.

The measure may be seen as a backdoor “mansion tax” in the face of the Liberal
Democrats’ call for a new levy on all homes worth more than £2m. Their
demands for a higher band of council tax would require a revaluation of all
the country’s homes.

Wealthy property owners have been anticipating new levies since George Osborne
announced plans in last year’s budget to tax